Sass & Bide

TONIGHT, Sass & Bide gave us a dramatic collection to finish the first day of London Fashion Week. The Aussie design duo stuck to last season’s monochrome palette while giving us a girl for autumn/winter 2010-11 who is a) hoping for a very mild winter; and b) chanelling the aesthetic of an Edwardian lady shipwrecked on an African shore, who has taken up macramé as a hobby to fill the quieter hours of her new life.

High-necked lace collars (that were separate to the tops underneath), were teamed with trousers – either billowing or skinny – and cropped jackets that had a military feel to them with epaulettes or tightly-packed pearls, rows of seashells or coilr of rope. And feathered neckpieces made for statement-making jewellery.

Razor-sharp teeth, feathers and mirrored embellishments added a tribal element to the duo’s signature fierceness. They presented trousers which gathered at the back and flowed with a volume that oozed feminine allure and very cropped tops which covered the shoulders and fastened at the sternum as a whole other garment added into the layering mix.

Maxi jersey dresses were slinky modesty-friendly alternatives to the teeny macramé party dresses that came teamed with giant claw-clutches.

On our shopping list? Those billowing trousers, the claw clutch and the shell-encrusted belts.